Leadership, Power & Politics

Leadership is the ability to influence a group toward the achievement of a vision or set of goals (Robbins & Judge, 2007). Leaders understand that people need to find meaning in life through their work and that meaning is derived from creativity in the service of worthwhile purposes. Strong personal ethics, a positive belief in others, and a compelling vision are other characteristics of successful corporate leadership (Badaracco, Ellsworth, 1992).

The choice of leaders is modeled within society, where leaders influence both the mode of interaction between groups (either peaceful compromise or costly conflict) and the outcome of these interactions (Hamlin, Jennings, 2007). Furthermore, the effects of culture on the performance of an organization depend, not on the strength of the overall culture, but on the mix and weightings of the components of that culture (Lewis, French, & Steane, 1997).

Traditionally, conflict has been regarded as abhorrent in organizations. When seen as behavior intended to obstruct the achievement of another person's goals, it is easy to understand the belief that a healthy organizational climate should reflect complete harmony (Mullins, 1993).

Most management theorists have come to accept that conflict in organizations is inevitable because conflict is often inherent in an organization’s structure and through the competition by members for scarce resources (Lewis, French, & Steane, 1997). Conflict ingrained within the culture of an organization can be extremely hard to identify and thus to break down (Morgan, 1988).

Conflict is in fact multidimensional. While one dimension of conflict enhances decision and quality, another dimension attenuates consensus and affective acceptance (Amason, 1996).

Cognitive or issue related conflict, beneficial to decision making, should be encouraged and managed. Affective conflict, a personalized type of conflict that erodes decision quality, leads to dissatisfaction, ill feelings and reduced cooperation. This conflict is debilitating and should be discouraged and resolved (Amason, Hochwarter, Thompson & Harrison, 1995).

Given that many conflicts in organizations become institutionalized through common attitudes, values and rituals, conflict can become part of the culture of an organization without members being aware of its presence (Lewis, French, & Steane, 1997). It is not conflict itself that damages an organization, but rather the extent, the type of the conflict, and the organization’s willingness to face up to the existence of this conflict and adopt conflict-managing behaviors that will enhance, rather than harm, decision making.

Power refers to a capacity that A has to influence the behavior of B so that B acts in accordance with A’s wishes (Robbins & Judge, 2007). Organizational exploitation, or the misuse of organizational power, has numerous causes, some of which are easily explained, others which can be inferred from behavior (Thibodeaux & Powell, 2003).

In a conflict with superiors, subordinates have to react to opponents with a legitimate power position that gives access to more power resources than the subordinate’s position (Hardy & Clegg, 1996). Superiors with a submissive strategy do not use their power advantage in conflict situations but leave room for mutual influences (de Reuver, 2006).

Because those who possess power depend less on the resources of others than vice versa, the powerful are more easily able to satisfy their own needs and desires (Galinsky et al., 2003). The power dependency theory distinguishes between power as a structural potential and power use (Molm et al., 1999). The structural power refers to the possession of power bases such as coercion, rewards, and information. In organizations, power bases are mainly allocated through the hierarchical structure of the organization (Pfeffer, 1992).

The conflict strategies “dominance” and “submissiveness” both label the power use of the disputing parties. In other words, dominance is a persuasive attempt to make the other party comply; submissiveness is behavior that gives power away.

In the beginning of a conflict process when conflicts have not yet escalated, there are still many possibilities for managers to influence the conflict process. Even if there are mutual irritations in a hostile atmosphere, conflicting parties can choose, for example to adopt a problem-solving approach or to employ contentious tactics (de Reuver, 2006).

Political behavior is defined as activities that are not required as part of one’s formal role in the organization, but that influences, or attempts to influence, the distribution of advantages and disadvantages within the organization (Robbins & Judge, 2007).